I’ve been a Windows Mobile guy since 1990-blah-blah-blah. I started using Microsoft mobile devices back in 1997 or so with the Casio Cassiopeia E-10/E-11 and haven’t looked back. I became a big WindowsCE and PocketPC guy and helped at least three or four sites get off the ground as either a guest reviewer or as a regular contributor. At least two of those sites are still around today (The Gadgeteer and pocketnow. I got into customizing extended ROM’s and into working with custom distributions of PocketPC and Windows Mobile builds. I was nominated as a Microsoft Mobile Devices MVP twice (that I know of) but came just shy of actually receiving the award (program politics…). Microsoft mobile devices and I have a pretty well defined history.

So, you have to believe me when I say this – and it kills me to actually vocalize it and write it down – I’d be very surprised if Windows Phone lived much beyond 2017. In fact, I really think its gonna die and disappear entirely before 2018.

The reasons for this are four fold

1. Ballmer Does Play into this
Whether you like him or not is irrelevant. Unfortunately for everyone that was a fan of the original Windows Mobile, Ballmer NEVER understood mobile computing and his ouster from the company can be traced to the fact that he NEVER got behind it.

EVER.

Windows Mobile should have taken over the mobile market place when both Apple and Google adopted Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) as the synch engine for both iOS and Android respectively. It should have swung for the fence at that point, knowing that during that time (roughly late 2007 to late 2009) it controlled MDM (mobile device management) for three of the four major mobile platforms on the market (iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile)

Ballmer never stepped on the gas or green lighted any kind of mobile acceleration, and unfortunately, Windows Mobile died. At that time, Windows Mobile 6.5.x was out in beta and as such, never saw the light of day. Microsoft killed it, back peddled, and instead released Windows Phone 7 in response to the iPhone.

2. Windows Phone Development History (both OS and Apps)
Windows Phone has a huge history of – pardon my language… – screwing over its developer partners. Windows Phone 7 wasn’t compatible with any version of Windows Mobile and developers had to rebuild current, popular apps from scratch. Windows Phone wasn’t compatible with Windows Phone 7 and again, developers had to rebuild current, popular apps from scratch.

Developers entered a wait and see mode on submitting new and recreated apps to the Windows Phone Store Many of the new devices at the time weren’t very popular and the new OS wasn’t attracting new users over other devices like the iPhone or the Droid and Droid X. Developing for Windows Phone 7.x and Windows Phone 8 also wasn’t as easy as it was to develop for iOS or Android; and the user bases there were better established.

At this time, Microsoft also didn’t enter any kind of marketing push to really try to compete with the iPhone or with Android (partially due to Ballmer not getting it, partially due to their own arrogance in thinking that Apple and Google would always use EAS to power their mail servers and mobile apps). Because they didn’t push their advantage appropriately and because both Apple and Google ended up dropping any and ALL support for EAS, they lost their strategic position on the backend of things.

Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 never took off with developers because they didn’t want to have to spend all of the time, money and resources to win their users back, who had, with them, moved on to other platforms.

The thought and hope with Windows 10 Mobile is that because of the architecture of Windows 10 Universal Apps, you develop once, and can have a single app on phones, tablets and desktop. That however, still has to be proven out, and I don’t know how willing many mobile developers are to give Microsoft a third try on a mobile platform that still doesn’t have any (real) users to speak of.

Speaking of which…

3. Low Market Share is still Declining
This is pathetic. According to the IDC, Windows Phone has a worldwide market share of only about 3%. iOS has about 14% global share and Android dominates the market with about 83%. Everyone I know of, including some major Windows industry pundits, say that’s a hole that Microsoft just isn’t going to be able to crawl out of. At best, Microsoft should be happy to hit 5% and hold that. If they can ever get it that high or that far…

Compounding the problem, Microsoft recently wrote down their entire Nokia acquisition, declaring all of the assets they actually retained, effectively worthless.

Microsoft also hasn’t released a flagship class Windows Phone since late 2013. Yes, they are supposed to have two others announced on 2015-10-06, currently code named Talk Man and City Man; but there are further considerations. For example, when will they release flagships AFTER that?

I don’t think they will.

Life is breathed into a platform by the hype and excitement generated by the best of the best. Both Apple and most of Google’s major hardware partners are releasing flagship class devices at least on an annual basis, with many Android hardware partners staggering and coordinating their flagship releases so that new devices are announced and released every 4-6 months.

Microsoft and Windows Phone doesn’t have that. The one major hardware partner that Microsoft DOES have – HTC – recently had their stock declared worthless, and they also haven’t released an M9 version of the HTC One for Windows Phone. I’d be very surprised if they did, too.

Microsoft has spent their engineering efforts introducing either low end or mid-range devices and has, unfortunately, saturated the market with them. The devices they do have are virtually indistinguishable from one another and no one knows why they should pick one over another, let a one over an Android devices that has a huge developer and accessory support base.

So… Microsoft doesn’t have the market share, and they don’t have the hardware releases to support a growth in market share. Worldwide, Microsoft seems to be fighting a losing battle.

4. Windows 10 Mobile Build Issues
Oh my Lord, what a train wreck this has been. This is almost as bad as the old Keystone Cops silent movie skits back in the day (and nearly just as pathetic…). Sorry, Gabe Aul… it just is, especially from the outside.

I’ve been a Windows Insider since the program was originally announced in October 2014, AND I’ve been active too. I submit feedback as often and as consistently as I can, on nearly every PC build I install on the Fast Ring. It can be a very labor intensive activity, but as software quality professional, I know I can give them the detailed information they want and need.

I also went and purchased a Windows Phone in anticipation of testing Windows 10 Mobile builds. I bought a BLU (Bold Like Us) Win HD LTE. it’s a very affordable, unlocked, upper mid-range dual SIM device that supports US carriers. However, there are issues here with this Windows Phone and Windows 10.

First and foremost, Windows 10 isn’t supported on it yet; and this is a HUGE problem.

Microsoft is only supporting their own Lumia devices and the HTC One M8 so far with Windows 10 Mobile Beta Builds.

Can someone – anyone really… I’d accept a logical explanation from anyone at this point – please explain to me WHY Microsoft isn’t supporting beta builds for any and ALL Windows 10 Mobile devices right now. With its release looming in the two and a half months left in 2015, you would think that Microsoft would be pushing this thing out to any and ALL devices on their platform… but they aren’t.

Worse yet, Gabe Aul (again… sorry for calling you out, Gabe) won’t answer any of my tweets questioning when other devices will support Insider Builds on either the Fast or Slow Rings. I also can’t get him to answer WHY other devices aren’t supported, either.

Worse than that, what the public has been able to see of the release and internal testing cycles for Windows 10 Mobile are effectively a huge cluster-bump. Earlier this week (the week of 2015-09-14) I got a notification from my Windows Phone that a Windows 10 update was available for it.

I got very excited. I even waited a few days and didn’t actually attempt to download or install the update until I had some time to spend paying attention to the update, the update process, and how things transitioned from one Mobile OS to the other.

After it downloaded, I did an internet search to see if anyone had experienced any problems. When I couldn’t find anything, I pulled the trigger.

The device restarted and I got the spinning gears screen. However, thankfully, as it turns out, the OS did not install. I got an error message from my device after about 20 minutes into the flash that the OS couldn’t be installed on my device. The screen flashed, and then it restarted on its own.

The next day, I saw on Neowin that a number of different devices got the same notice that I got and that it was a mistake, and Microsoft would need to push out an update to fix those devices that were now unstable and functioning inappropriately.

if you could physically see me as I’m writing this, you’d see that I’m shaking my head.

What the hell??

This isn’t the first time that this kind of problem has happened with the Windows 10 Insider program. If you remember, a similar problem happened on the desktop OS where users were seeing updates they weren’t supposed to see and couldn’t download or could partially download and the download would fail. MS had to shoot out an update to fix that.

Then there was an issue where some users installed an update that prevented them from seeing updates they were supposed to see. Microsoft had to shoot out an update to fix that. It’s clear that Microsoft is having a number of technical issues with their release management process. In appropriate updates are going out and needed updates are not.

Then, there’s an issue with build quality in Windows 10 Mobile. Most of the Fast Ring Builds are totally unusable, or have major flaws that make using the OS on a supported device very difficult. I only remember one build being released to Slow Ring Insiders a number of months ago. The testing process MS has in place for Mobile is the same that it has for Desktop – if a build passes specific testing miles stones on both their internal Fast and Slow Rings, then it is released to the Insider Fast Ring. If it passes testing mile stones there, its released to the Insider Slow Ring.

Not much is getting past the Insider Fast Ring. Windows 10 Mobile has the same (if not worse) instability problems that Windows 10 for desktop is currently rumored to be having.

This clearly doesn’t look good for Windows Mobile. It has a history of little to no internal support from either Management or Marketing. The Windows Phone development community doesn’t like it, because there isn’t a lot of money to be made selling software for it. The platform itself is having issues getting users to jump on and its market share has steadily declined over the past 2 – 3 years. Finally, it’s got release management and build quality issues.

When you look at all of this, you have to ask yourself – Why is Microsoft continuing to do this to themselves AND to their users? It isn’t reasonable to think that Microsoft is going to be able to generate enough market share to continue support for the platform. When you couple that with the cluster-bump that has been their release and QA processes for Mobile (and Desktop) over the past few months, you’re left with one REALLY huge question:

Why is Microsoft, one of the biggest and best software companies in the WORLD, having trouble getting this right? I have the answer to that (it’s a methodology and process problem…you can’t cut corners) but I don’t have the time nor space to go into that. I’d lose most everyone in the problem to TLDR (too long, didn’t read). So, I’ll have to save that for another time.

BUT..!

What do you think of this? Is Windows 10 Mobile going to make it? Will it be worth the wait? Will it provide any value to anyone in the mobile market? Will it live beyond 2018 or have all of the issues I’ve outlined bring about its demise (sooner rather than later…)??

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole thing. Why don’t you meet me in the discussion area below and give me your thoughts on the whole issue?

Windows Live is Dead, Long Live, uh… Windows Built in Apps

The Windows Live series of apps and branding was one of the things that really helped make Windows 7 a success. While these all changed to ModernUI apps in Windows 8 (and the transition killed what was and could have continued to be a really nice suite of apps), Microsoft has worked hard save some or all of them. Windows Live is dead.

Long live Windows Apps…! Uh… yeah.

Windows 10 has some really nice replacement apps that it rescued from ModernUI. While some of them, like Food and Travel will both die as Microsoft discontinues them, others like Video, Music, Photos and Mail and Calendar have been revised and reintroduced in Windows 10.

Mail and Calendar are two of the apps that help make up the touch version of Microsoft Office (see below) and are really nice Universal and touch implementations of these two (now) system level apps. All of these apps are available as part of the default Windows 10 installation and are available for use out of the box. (Whereas with Windows Live apps, you had to go and download a different installer to get them.)

As a brief aside, the above download will work on Windows 10, as I previously reported, but will require the installation of .NET 3.5 or greater runtime to your Window 10 PC. It’s also the only way to get Windows Live Writer, which, by the way, works very well under Windows 10.

Office Gets Touchy

The touch version of Microsoft Office was first released for iPad in 2014 and then was followed shortly after that with the Android version. The Windows version is now available for download in the Windows Store, and is free… though, there are a few catches to this.

First, if you want to do anything really and truly productive with it, you’re going to need an Office 365 subscription. Period. It doesn’t have to be an expensive subscription. Any one will do; but you’re going to need one. If you have a Windows computing device that came with an Office 365 subscription, like the WinBook TW700, then you already have the rights to the fully functional bits.

If you have a low-end tablet something with a screen 10.1 inches or smaller, then you can get the apps with basic functionality for free, and won’t need a subscription…unless you need premium features. Here’s the specifics from Microsoft:

“Currently, we are also using screen size to delineate between professional and personal use. Based on our research, we are classifying anything with a screen size of 10.1 inches or less as a true mobile device: You’re probably using it on the go, when it’s not practical to use a larger computing device such as a PC or a Mac. You probably aren’t using a mouse or a keyboard, instead navigating via touch interface. It’s probably not a “pro” category tablet that is used for design or presentations. On these devices, the core editing and viewing experience is free, until you get to those premium, subscription features.”

Any way you look at it, getting these apps is a great idea and something that you will want to have at your beck and call for quick editing tasks or when you simply don’t want to run the full version of either Word, Excel or PowerPoint to make a few quick, light edits. These are also perfect for school aged children when they need to write a report or to create a presentation for school or some other extra-curricular activity.

Windows 10 is Free

There’s been a lot of talk on this and a lot of it has been confusing, especially when it comes to, “which version and I gonna get?”. Here’s the skinny on the whole deal.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade, for a period of one (1) year from its release. If you have a PC running a legitimate, activated version of Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, you have a period of one year to get your free upgrade. After that, it’s thought that you’ll have to pay for your upgrade, but Microsoft hasn’t clarified that. You may be able to get it free after 2016-07-29; or you might have to pay for the upgrade. Users who do upgrade to Windows 10 will get a corresponding version of Windows 10 for free. You must already have a Genuine version of Windows running, however, and there are a few caveats where versions are concerned.

Users of Windows 7 Starter Edition, Home Basic or Home Premium will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home. Users of Windows 8 Home will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home. Users of Windows 8.1 Home will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home.

Users of Windows 7 Pro or Windows 7 Ultimate will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Users of Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8.1 Pro will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.

Users wishing to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro can do so, but can expect to pay $99USD. This can be purchased online, or in stores, at any time, after the upgrade completes.

As always… clear as mud.

Once you upgrade, Microsoft is planning on supporting Windows 10 for a period of 10 years (so until roughly 2025-07-29).

Performance

I’ve been looking at Windows 10 on a couple different machines since the inception of the Windows Insider Program. I think I’ve got enough information as well as enough experience with the new OS to give everyone a decent take on how the OS will perform on new as well as legacy hardware. However, as with everything in this world, you mileage may vary – meaning that your experience on the same hardware that I’m using and referencing may be different than what I have depicted here.

Surface Pro 3

Performance on my Surface Pro 3 (Intel Core i5-4300U, 2.0-2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD) has been acceptable to decent. Based on what I’m seeing here, and having experienced on my current SP3 this as well as the entry level SP3 (Intel Core i3-4020V, 1.5GHz, 4GB RAM 64GB SSD), it’s clear to me that an Intel i5 processor is likely the bare minimum needed to run Windows 10 with any level of acceptable performance.

As with any version of Windows, it’s going to eat as much RAM as you can throw at it. The more you have dedicated to a specific processor or processor core, the better the machine is going to perform.

On machines like any Surface Pro or other Windows compatible tablet, upgrading any core PC component, simply isn’t possible. You’re stuck with what you got when you purchased the device. In situations like this the best thing you can do is buy as much as you can afford. If you can tolerate it financially, make the purchase hurt just a bit. While the purchase may be a bit of a stretch, in the end, when you try to make the device do more than it really can or should – and most users likely will – you’ll be glad that it’s there in the end.

The Surface Pro 3 that I have is the mid-range model. I got it when it was on sale and only $100 USD above the price of the low-end i3 model SP3. While this device technically CAN run Photoshop and Lightroom, this configuration isn’t one that I’d recommend doing that on, at least not long term. You’re going to want something with more punch and a lot more RAM than just 4GB.

Low End, Budget and Small Tablets

The biggest problem with Windows 10 on a low end or any kind of budget or small screen tablet, is that these devices don’t have any upgradable storage or RAM… well, and the performance just totally sucks. Unfortunately, these are the kinds of machines that would likely benefit most from a RAM upgrade.

Budget equipment often uses low end components, like Intel’s Atom processor line. While this processor can run Windows, performance levels on those machines are really only realized on units that have at least 4GB of RAM. Unfortunately, devices in the low end or budget category often don’t have that much RAM. Most of them have 1-2GB of RAM; and you’re going to be lucky to have one that has 2GB of RAM. Yeah… I think you’ll find that that extra gigabyte of RAM, its strategically important.

The biggest problem with all of this – small tablets like the WinBook TW-700 – came with Windows 8.x Pro. That means they’re supposed to get the Pro version of Windows 10 on 2015-07-29, when the new OS launches. Tablets like this suffer from three huge issues

They don’t have a powerful enough processor
The Atom processor on my Dell Latitude 10 ST2 may be a few years old, but it technically still has some usable life in it. However, I’ve noticed that anything short of Intel’s CherryTrail Atom line – the processor in the Surface 3 – won’t have enough power to push Windows 10. So, all of those awesome WinBook tablets like the TW-700 and the TW-800 line tablets, are going to have huge issues running the new OS, even though they should qualify for the upgrade.

They don’t have enough RAM
Tablets in the budget line often have just 1GB of RAM. While Windows 10 will live in that space, it’s like shoving your foot in a shoe that’s half a size too small. You can walk; man, it’s extremely painful. It’s going to be the same way here.

They don’t have enough storage
Seven to eight inch tablets are usually 32bit machines. I haven’t seen one yet house 64bit processor. The Windows 10 install DVD for 32bit machines is about 3.5GB in size. This is a problem because many of these smaller, budget oriented tablets only have 16GB of storage space.Decompressed, Windows 8.x requires about 7GB of space, on a virgin drive. After you add in Windows Update History and an application or two, you’ve only got 2GB or so of space left over. With Windows 10 requiring at least 4-8GB of space to install, you’ve got impossible space problems. You aren’t going to be able to upgrade that tablet let Windows 10. You might be able to do a clean install, provided you do a full hard drive wipe; but then you’ve got to install all of your apps again, and if your product/ registration codes were virtual – meaning they really did come preinstalled on the device – then getting them back is going to be nearly impossibleWindows 10 was supposed to ship with a method that would allow you to temporarily uninstall apps and/ or move them to an SD card in order to facilitate installation, but that feature got delayed, and will likely be part of Threshold 2 (TH2), or the next official big update of Windows 10, due out in October of 2015. I don’t think Windows 10 will run on these small, budget tablets then, either.

So, what are you to do if you want to try to put Windows 10 on that kind of tablet? Your best bet is to either find the ISO and burn a hard copy DVD or buy a copy with a dedicated product code and install Windows 10 that way. Any method you use, however, won’t improve Windows 10 performance on this type of budget tablet. It’s still going to be slow going and it’s never going to get better, because you can’t install additional RAM.

Conclusion

There’s a lot here, kids. There really is.

It’s clear that Microsoft really screwed the pooch when it came to Windows 8. They went all in with touch, but then didn’t embrace a mobile strategy that made any sense. Windows 8 – and Windows RT too, if you really think about it – tanked because Microsoft didn’t (couldn’t or wouldn’t) give up the desktop.

Windows RT was supposed to be Microsoft’s answer to the iPad, and it would have worked (been better received/ accepted..?) if RT devices were MetroUI/ ModernUI ONLY…and without the Desktop. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t make that happen, and nearly everyone choked on a touch interface on a non-touch enabled PC.

But that’s in the past.

With Windows 10, Microsoft has tried to learn from its mistakes and has introduced an operating system that tries to embrace touch but gives up enough to allow it to work on the desktop without causing most of the world’s workforce – who does business on a Windows powered PC – to get work done. In this regard, Windows 10 will succeed and do very well.

From a mobile perspective, Microsoft is trying. They really are… yeah, they’re trying…as in trying my patience. Windows 10 Mobile still isn’t out yet, and still isn’t available in preview form on the Windows Phones I have access to.

Microsoft is trying to create one “version” of Windows that has enough UI common elements that you’ll feel comfortable and familiarized with it, regardless of what kind of device – whether that’s a smartphone, tablet (regardless of size) or PC – that you’re holding.

What Do *I* Really Think?

Windows 10 is designed to be FAMILIAR… and it is, in many ways. Users of Windows 7 will feel comfortable with the redesigned Start Menu (though they’ll likely remove ALL of the Live Tiles…); but it will at least look and feel familiar enough for them to use and work with. Those that did move to Windows 8 and are stuck on that paradigm, will find Live Tiles in the Start Menu and can even make it go full screen, if they wish. Again, familiar.

But again, what do I think..? That’s pretty easy.

Windows 10 is a decent operating system. I think there are going to be issues with updates and new builds that will likely either break the internet or try your patience as you try to download updates that are likely to come at a pace that’s a LOT more frequent than you’re used to. I have a feeling you’re going to see a bit more bundling of fixes and such into service packs than we have in the past few years… that will at least make it easier to update your PC after you have to blow it and rebuild it because you got a nasty virus or adware infection.

Using Windows 10 is fairly straight forward and the new UI elements are easy to get used to. As I said, its familiar; and you’re going to like it coming from either Windows 7 OR Window 8.x.

Should You Upgrade?

If you’re using Windows 7, you can stay there for another year or two if you really have to. There’s nothing wrong with it, but when the Windows 10 upgrade is free, and it’s still fairly familiar to what you’re using now, upgrading makes a lot of sense. If you’re on Windows 8.x and you don’t like it, and you really need to get off of it or switch to something else, again… the upgrade to Windows 10 is free and at least worth a shot before you go off and buy a Mac or switch to some Linux distribution that will also likely be a bit of a stretch for you.

So, if you fall in any of those spots, yes, upgrade.

Unless…

If you’re on a budget tablet – anything with say an Atom processor and DEFINITELY anything with 1GB of RAM – stop. Don’t accept the upgrade and stay with Windows 8.x. Period. I’ve had nothing but trouble with my Dell Latitude 10 ST2 tablet on Windows 10, and it has 2GB of RAM. I can’t imagine what 1GB of RAM would be like.

One the desktop side, it’s going to be pretty much the same thing. Any older processor types – Core Duo’s, Core 2 Duo’s, Celerons (regardless of how new the PC is) – won’t fare well under Windows 10 with anything under 4-8GB of RAM, and even then, you may not want to upgrade. And going back to your previous OS may or may not be possible, depending on the amount of storage you have and whether or not you have the original restore DVD’s.

Introduction
I’ve been involved with every Microsoft Operating System release, as either a part of the formal technical beta team, a representative of an MS partner doing formal testing in cooperation with Microsoft and the company I worked for (the MS partner), or as part of a formal public beta, providing professional level feedback (i.e. detailed bug reports) since Windows 95. I’ve had my hands on (nearly every) beta and prerelease build of Microsoft Windows (and Office, for that matter) since the (public) beginning of the internet. I still use the MSN email address that was assigned to me during the test of the original MSN dialup service (you know… the one to go up against AOL). It’s now used as my Microsoft Account ID.

It was only natural for me to get involved with the Windows Insider program for Windows 10 when it started in October of 2014. I’ve tried to stay active throughout the Windows 10 beta, and as you can see from my Insider Profile, I’ve done an ok job.

I’ve also tried to cover Windows 10 developments since the start of the Insider Program. If you remember the list that I published recently, then you’ll notice that there are just a couple more to add to the list:

There’s more to say about Windows and small tablets as well as budget tablets and PC’s. Is Windows 10 the right OS for your legacy hardware, or should you stay with what you have? Will Windows 10 run well on your device, or will you bump into performance problems? Will Windows 10 be the savior that Microsoft is hoping it will be? I hope to answer all of that and more. Let’s take a look at what Windows 10 has to offer and we’ll find out…

New Microsoft Windows 10 Features

Some would call Windows 10 a natural progression of features and UI enhancements from Windows 8.x. I completely disagree. Like Windows 7, Windows 10 is a strategic retreat… a rehashing of features and interface elements designed to make it more appealing, more acceptable to a near totally disgruntled user base.

Like Windows Vista, nearly everyone HATED Windows 8. Windows 8.1 (either with or without its Updates), was only begrudgingly tolerated; and in my opinion, only because owners of Windows 8.x native computers HAD to tolerate it. I don’t have the actual numbers, but I’m certain that nearly everyone that could downgrade their PC to Windows 7 without losing major functionality or hardware compatibility, did. Windows 10 has a huge row to hoe when it comes to improving the PC computing experience.

Windows 10 is supposed to be familiar and easy to use. The Start Menu is back, but it’s not quite like you remember it. It’s sort of a mish-mash between the Windows 7 and Windows 8 Start Menu and Start Screen, respectively. You can pin apps and live tiles to it; and if you’ve not actually in love with either, you can pretty much customize its complete look and feel. With pinned apps, you get access to the apps you use the most. With Live Tiles, you get access to either Universal or Desktop apps, but also get a small window into the newest data received by the app.

If you accept that an Intel Core i5 is the baseline processor, even with 4GB of RAM, I think the OS starts up and resumes fast, has more built-in security to help keep you safe, and is designed to work with software and hardware you already have.

There are some decent new features that come standard with Windows 10. While some of these features may require specific hardware in order for them to be used, many of them will be usable by nearly everyone, regardless of computer brand or system components. Here, I’m going to cover some of the more notable features. With that, let’s take a look at what Windows 10 will offer…

Windows Hello

Passwords are a pain in the butt to remember. When you have a password policy at work that requires you to change it every 30 days, remembering your (constantly changing, constantly) new password can be challenging. Windows 10 tries to better that with the implementation of biometric login’s via either fingerprints or your face.

Yes… your face.

With Windows Hello, Windows 10 is able to recognize your face and log you in with a smile. While this will require specific and specialized web cam hardware – and did I mention that that hardware does NOT exist on the Surface Pro 3? – it does nearly insure that no unauthorized users will be logging into your computer to steal your data.

I haven’t had the chance to try out Windows Hello, largely because none of the computers I have, have the necessary web cam hardware in order to be able to take advantage of it. However, it sounds pretty cool. If this kind of camera hardware is relatively inexpensive to either add as a third party option or to include as part of a computer or tablet’s core components, then this could be a huge step forward in providing a secured PC computing experience. However, only time will tell if this turns out to be something useful or something that’s nothing more than a fad at best.

The Start Menu Returns… Sort of

One of the biggest fau pax’s in Windows 8.x was its lack of Start Button and complete absence of Start Menu. The Button came back in Windows 8.1. The Menu is back in Windows 10, sort of…

In Windows 10, the Start Menu is more of a mish-mash between the Start Menu of Windows 7 and the Start Screen of Windows 8. In Windows 10, you have both menu shortcuts and Start Screen live tiles. To boot, the whole thing is resizable with your mouse.

On the left side of the Menu, you have app folders and short cuts. Live Tiles are on the right. If you wish, you can completely remove all of the Live Tiles and keep just the Start Menu. This will make the whole thing seem more Windows 7 like, and perhaps something that will be more familiar to those that need the familiarity.

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While this mashup isn’t always the best of features – during the beta period, many tiles would work for a while and then stop working – at least you have a choice of all, some or no tiles at all. In Tablet Mode, however, you get the full Windows 8.x style Start Screen (and that’s all that Tablet Mode really seems to be – a giant Start Screen, well, and full screen width system dialog boxes…).

You can still get access to the Desktop in Tablet Mode… which doesn’t make ANY sense to me… but I digress.

Virtual desktops

The biggest issue with mulita-tasking is that there just doesn’t seem to be a big enough monitor for me to put all of my open apps on in a way that’s easy for me to get to, especially when I’m really working hard. Virtual desktops allow you to organize work in such a way that you have access to your monitor’s full resolution, without having to constantly minimize and maximize open windows (though, quite honestly, I don’t know what the big hullaballoo is around that…)

Anyhow, in Windows 10, you can create an “unlimited” number (and by unlimited, I mean, given how much physical and virtual RAM your machine has, can make and can manage) of virtual desktops that will allow you to organize programs in a way that makes sense to you. How well that makes sense to you, is a bit hard to predict. You get there via a Windows Key + Tab key combination, or you can tap the virtual desktop icon on the task bar, next to Cortana’s search bar.

This feature has been possible via third party apps for years, but now its native functionality in Windows 10.

Windows Snap Improvements

Back in the days of Windows 3.x, cascading and tiling your open windows was all the rage, and one of the better ways to organize your work, especially once OLAE (Object Linking and Embedding) came around and you could actively link parts of one document into another. This made it very easy to find what you were looking for in one document, and then either cut and paste it or drag and drop it into the target document.

Fast forward a decade or two, and Microsoft introduced Snap in Windows 8. Snap gave you the ability to anchor one window to one half of your monitor and then another app on the other half of your monitor, effectively giving you the ability to swap bits and pieces back and for like you did back in the day, though with Snap, it may be a bit easier to setup.

Metro apps are Dead. Long Live Universal Apps!

So… ok. Windows 8’s MetroUI/ ModernUI and the apps that went with it totally sucked. Microsoft finally got it and completely killed not only the UI in Windows 10, but the apps that went with it. Well, that is to say, that they killed the way the apps looked. Now, these apps are called Universal Apps.

The idea here is that these redefined, universal apps can run on any machine running any version of Windows 10, regardless of screen size or form factor. With Universal Apps, developers get to code once, (theoretically) compile once, and have an app that runs on a Windows Phone, a Windows tablet, as well as on a Windows PC. Microsoft is hoping that this will entice developers to not only continue developing for Windows, but to also create apps that will run “on every version of Windows.” This is code for Microsoft trying to beg developers to write apps for Windows Phone and the Windows Store, which they have largely ignored since its inception.

Yeah… It echoes in there.

Action Center

Windows Charms are gone. That interface went out with Windows 8.x. In its place when you swipe in from the right edge of your screen, or when you tap the dialog bubble in the System Tray, you get the Action Center.

From here, you can address any and all system level notifications that either the OS or any apps have sent you. You can dismiss one, some or all of them, or tap on any individual notification to deal with it directly.

Additionally, Quick Action buttons near the bottom of the Action Center give you instant access to often used, important system functionality. These buttons are customizable via the Notifications and Actions applet in Settings.

Microsoft Edge

Internet Explorer has become, over the years, a huge non-standardized mess. Because so many enterprises – companies – run Windows, Internet Explorer in many cases became the default browser of any company that ran the OS. When that happened, those companies locked in their version of Windows AND Internet Explorer in a death grip that still has many companies still running Windows XP, running IE6. It’s just the browser (and version) that just won’t die.

With Windows 10, Microsoft hopes to change that. Microsoft Edge – formerly called Project Spartan – is the newest browser in Microsoft’s new flagship, desktop OS. With Edge, you can annotate live web pages and then share those pages AND your notes with others. You can read online articles without being distracted and you can save articles to be read at a later time. Edge and Cortana (see below) also work together, so you can make restaurant reservations or read reviews, without leaving the page that you’re currently viewing.

The code name for this new Windows 10 exclusive app is aptly named. The app is a bit Spartan when it comes to on screen controls as well as features. While I’m certain they will come, post Windows 10 release, waiting for an Edge version of everything that you may see in other browsers make take a bit of time.

The browser isn’t the easiest thing to use, and many may find it a bit confusing. The address bar, for example, is completely hidden. If you click up near the top of the current tab you’re on, it will appear, but I never feel as though I’m clicking in the right place. I’d rather have a visible edge to the box that I can see… The lack of polish on things like this make Edge interesting, but all the more difficult to use.

Cortana Comes to the PC

Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now voice operated, digital assistants. While both Siri and Google Now have been around a bit longer than Cortana, the latter seems a bit more sophisticated and easier to use.

On Windows 10, you can even train Cortana to learn your voice. It will only respond to you after that (at least in theory) and its accuracy is much improved after training completes. I was actually very impressed with Cortana during my vocal testing of it.

However, I don’t see myself using Cortana all that often. I don’t use Siri hardly at all on my iPhone. I just don’t talk to it; but that may be because it’s not as advanced, and is so very limited. Siri just doesn’t do as much as Cortana can.

I don’t know that I will use Cortana all that much on my Surface Pro 3. I honestly don’t use it outside of the office; and I’m not the type to talk to my computer. I have enough problems with people looking at me like I’m nuts as it is. I don’t need to provide them with any additional fuel.

Using Cortana via a keyboard, however, is totally easy and natural. You type in your natural language question, and Cortana does the rest. Searching the web is easy. Finding documents, apps, or System Components (like Control Panel or Settings applets) is easy and takes just as much effort as typing the name of the document or thing you’re looking for. That works a bit easier than you might think and won’t get you strange looks at work when you talk to your Surface Pro tablet…

However, if over the next few years, Cortana can become more intelligent and can really help boost productivity, then I may revisit this decision of forced silence at a later date. For now, however, I think I’ll just try to stick to typed searches.

Xbox and Windows 10

I’m not a huge gaming fan. I don’t play at all, though I do have an Xbox One in the house. My son, however, is the local gaming expert. What I’m really looking forward to allowing him to try, though is the Xbox and Windows 10 gaming integrations between Xbox and a Windows Phone 10 device.

The boy can really spend some time playing games. On the weekends – read Saturday… Sunday is Church – when we allow him to play with some extended time, he gets up early in the morning and meets many of his classmates online for extended rounds of Destiny or Halo. They’ve been known to play for hours until one parent decides to break it all up.

At our house, that’s usually when my granddaughter gets up and comes up stairs. At times like that, or when others want to use the TV for something other than watching him kill aliens, transferring the game to a Windows Phone handset or to a Windows tablet may be a good thing for him. He can still play his games, and I get a chance to use my television set.

Don’t expect this game console – PC/ Windows Phone/ Tablet integration to become available on 29, July, however. While Windows 10 will eventually come to Xbox, I don’t expect it to be released until sometime in mid to late October with the TH2 (Threshold 2) release of Windows 10.

The Xbox app on Windows 10, however, will allow you to get access to the same games, and you should be able to play Xbox titles on your Windows 10 PC, with your Microsoft account, if you can actually get the gamer tag to set.

On an unrelated side, I’d like to say that I did not choose the gamer tag that’s shown in these shots. The Xbox app chose it, and I actually find that choice of tag to be in very poor taste considering the little girl that was nearly stabbed to death.

It’s just been announced that Microsoft has reached RTM status and will release Windows 10 Build 10240 to the public, according to The Verge. This is the “last” version of Windows to be released to users prior to the July 29th release date.

While there hasn’t been any indication of release of this RTM build to Fast Ring Windows Insiders, I would expect that to happen prior to the end of the normal work week. According to The Verge, there aren’t any new features included in this new build. It’s largely fit, form and functionality improvements and bug fixes, even with the large build number jump from 10166 to 10240 (which, by the way, is the binary value, equivalent to 10.00… see what they did there..?)

This is the build that will be shipped to computer manufacturers and OEM’s so that it can be put on new machines that are supposed to ship with Windows 10. As I mentioned, its assumed that Windows Insiders will get this build (along with others that will likely come to the general population) prior to the 2015-07-29 release.

The last couple weeks of this month should still be interesting. Let’s see what happens. You can look for a formal review of Windows 10 on Soft32 in the weeks to come.

Microsoft recently announced that new builds via the Insiders program will be temporarily suspended, effective immediately.

At some point during the late part of last year and the early part of this year, I thought that Microsoft might do this, but as things progressed, that thought moved further and further from my mind. Unfortunately, Microsoft has actually done what I thought it would do when it comes to Windows 10 RTM and post RTM deliveries – They’ve asked their Windows Insiders to test the production delivery system.

In order to do that, Microsoft has removed access to Builds 10162 and 10166 from the Fast and Slow Insider Delivery Rings. They’ve also removed official ISO’s from their site. At this point, if you haven’t downloaded either of those builds from Microsoft or haven’t downloaded any official ISO, you’re going to have a difficult time obtaining either of those resources via Windows Update or the Windows Insider website.

“We’re suspending the availability of Windows 10 builds briefly while we prepare for that, and the next build that we flight to you will be delivered using the production channels. Starting tomorrow, we will also not be delivering any additional ISOs at this point as we really need Insiders to be using, stressing, and validating our distribution and upgrade processes. We’ll make ISOs available again in the future, but for now we ask you to upgrade your current build via Windows Update once the next build is released.”

In the next 24 hours, you should expect to see that Windows 10 shows “up to date” when looking for a new build, and again, the ISO’s to disappear. You will also find that pre-release keys will no longer activate builds.

Again, Microsoft is assuring all their Windows Insiders that this is temporary and that they need us to test the production delivery systems. Additional builds will flow down to Insiders, but when they do, they will be via the Production Pipeline, and will be builds that will most likely be Release Candidates as well as the final RTM build of Windows 10.

Microsoft has said that they will also continue to release builds to Windows Insiders post RTM release. I am assuming that they’ve worked out the delivery system for Insiders vs. the general public when “everyone” is running Windows 10, post RTM, and a new Insider Build is made available. How THAT will be setup, however, hasn’t been made generally available, however.

The important thing to do here, however, is to go and get the ISO’s as quickly as you can… to go and run Windows Update NOW and get Builds 10162 and 10166 ASAP, because if you don’t have them now… by this time on 2015-07-14… you won’t be able to get them OR more importantly, to activate them.